Prostate Education

Warning: If you are squeamish about discussion of internal body parts and anatomy, you may want to skip this post.

Since I was diagnosed with prostate cancer, I have often found myself conducting brief anatomy lessons about the prostate. It seems few people, at least amongst those who haven’t had to deal with it directly, know much about the prostate. So I thought I’d take the time to include some educational information about the prostate here. Let’s start with a diagram.

As the diagram shows, the prostate is located just below the bladder and adjacent to the colon. The urethra runs through the middle of the prostate. The prostate has a set of muscles that propel a man’s semen out of his penis when he ejaculates. These muscles are also used to control flow of urine. There are also bundles of nerves that run along either side of the prostate.
When the prostate is removed, the nerves are dissected away from the organ. The urethra is snipped on either side and the prostate is removed. The urethra is then stretched and stitched back together with a catheter both allowing urine to drain and helping hold the urethra in place until it heals.

With the prostate muscles now missing, a man needs to learn to control the flow of urine by using the muscles of the pelvic floor in the same way a woman exerts control. This is learned via physical therapy and practice.
So the primary issues following a prostatectomy are incontinence and erectile dysfunction.